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Thursday, May 23, 2013

It's TIME to Paisley-fy! Clock re-do tutorial

Well it is looking like I am not going to get copies of the pix I took of my Phantom of the Opera Costumes so that's a big bummer. The moral of the story is "Bring your own camera next time!" However, life goes on.

I had a very boring clock on my office wall. I had to change a dead battery in it and while I had it off the wall and in my hands I decided to paisley-fy it. First I had to see if I could take it apart without totally breaking it.

As it turns out, the plastic disc covering the face just pops right off when you insert a rusty Exacto-knife (or other skinny/flat object of your choice) near the little tabs.

After removing the plastic cover, I traced it onto a piece of white card stock so it would fit the clock face. I didn't even remove the paper face that was already there. It it was glued on pretty well and I thought tearing it off might damage the mechanism holding the hands. Since the card stock I was using was mostly opaque AND I was going to draw and color on that I figured the original numbers would not show through--and they didn't.

I worked my doodle magic inside the circle and also marked a smaller circle right in the center where the hands would be.

I colored my paisley, cut out my circle and the smaller circle for the hands, then started to put my drawing overtop the original face. After trying to thread the hands through just the little circle, I realized they needed more wiggle room. I cut a small slit, about 1 1/2" to get them through.

Then I threaded the hands through and positioned my improved clock face the way I wanted it. Lying flat, against the clock's face the extra slit is not visible.

I carefully popped the plastic cover back on, inserted the new batteries and hung it back up. This was super easy to do; the drawing and coloring was what took the longest. The potential for this project is huge! You could cover your clock face with anything you want, whether it's a unique drawing, a large enough picture, matching wallpaper or fabric to go with your décor. The possibilities are endless!